The symbols in the translation are almost as good as the having the translation and the map itself!

That's why I spent an hour searching for them. :ouch:

And an hour trying to find a solution to not getting vowels with macron by typing Alt+[Number] anymore. It's funny that it doesn't work any longer when you install the input method editor for Japanese. I use them for the transcription of said language...

weather chart
 

Quote:
I just dug out the manual and here it is:

http://www.abload.de/img/streampnpg.jpg

Schnelle Stroemung=Fast stream
Mittlere=Medium

If anyone wants to submit it to the abandonia entry of this game, please do, you can take credit for it.

Great!
Can you provide also the weather chart someone mentioned?

zxcvbn

The weather chart is rather useless, it basically has big storm signs in the middle of the major oceans.

I found the original manual here:

http://www.freegameempire.com/games/1869/manual

Hope it helps some :)

One final tip, if you are playing the long game to 1880 there are two ships that dramatically affect profitability. The first is the 1600 ton steel hulled steamship that appears in London about 1867. Very much faster, much lower maintenance than any clipper ship. And the king of them all, the 2000 ton SH steamship that appears in Savannah about 1880. This last is for me the best ship in the game. It has the highest cargo to crew ratio of any ship, and like all SH steamships it's maintenance costs are low.

If you are not home in either of these ports, go out of your way to get them. A full load of silk offloaded in Le Havre and Hamburg nets about $15k minimum. Most of the time you need to carry about four commodities to ensure you can sell them all without warehousing, so route planning becomes a bit more complex. But it's well worth it.

And I've completely given up on passengers. Just no way that I've found to make any serious money out of it.

exploit
 

I just found an exploit. If you keep your ship long enough to lose its value completely, to the point that shipyards will only buy it for $200, you can sell it, then ask to buy a used ship. Your old ship will appear on the list, with a price of $0. You can then buy it for $0, receive it in 4 days, sell it again for $200 and rebuy it for $0. Repeat every 4 days for undeserved profits. :-)

I have to say, it's the only way I manage to make actual profit in this game, in the long game, starting with those $7000 and buying that $3500 used schooner for first ship. Otherwise I make enough to stay afloat and pay taxes, but not much beyond that. Maybe I should get a loan and start off with a bigger ship to begin with. Well, for now I'll use my exploit for access to better ships to enjoy the game a bit more, and maybe next I'll play again limiting myself not to use the exploit :-).

all is well now ..
 

Hey guys,
even though it might be late to answer this thread... I just figured that you have to type in SOMETHING/ANYTHING into that grey box underneath the black box BEFORE pressing 'save' . This 'SOMETHING' will be your file name which will be created in the GAME folder which you may have to create yourselves.... After pressing save this file will be seen in the formerly black-only box in brownish letters...

Aye, best of luck to ye olde traders..
Joschel-

Trading chart version 2
 

I made a new trading chart that makes the game much more manageable and interesting.

With this chart and some study of it, it is very possible and fun to rank on top of the shipping companies in the 26 years scenario.

As you have all noticed, Max created a confusing measurement system for the prices (bales, crates, and tons that are not equal to the ship's actual displacement tons). The trading chart in Abandonia also forgot about Diu, near Bombay, and a few prices.

I made a new chart, with ports organized in a West-East order, and with the actual prices for one ton of the product in the cargo hold. Lots of short, medium and long range routes to be explored, with as many as three ships, in my experience (I played the game for a week).

Here it is.

Only considering ton prices is a good and necessary starting point.

The next step is to have an overview of ton-profits for different routes/products. This overview should also list the special prices that the merchants are willing to pay if they haven't been provided the product sufficiently.

This link chart is provided as an attachment to this post. (The (s) means ton profit if special price is payed.)

By using it, you will find a lot of interesting information, e.g.,

(1) from Diu to London, tobacco completely trumps cotton since tobacco yields higher ton profit even if a special price for cotton is payed.

(2) Special prices are especially important for expensive products. For example, obtaining a special price for ivory increases the ton profit about 40%, whereas, for coal, the increase is only 10%.